Space Lord
by Blue Mistfall
Summary: Sequel to The Temple of Nobility. It all started with illustrations in history books, but when Second Doctor and Jamie - and two young human-Timelord hybrids - took the initiative, the situation appeared to be more serious than it seemed. Even too serious.
1. Another Space

**A/N: This fic is based on stories Smith &amp; McCrimmon Investigative Services, Ltd. and Return to the Home by the Sea by Crystal Rose of Pollux (read them, you won't regret it!). The main core is that Second Doctor and Jamie hold an investigative agency in New York City during Season 6B.**

**R&amp;R, please!**

* * *

Lionel Temple was used to everyday troubles which came upon combining his older sister Erfin and studying. And this evening he was prepared for them, but not to what he saw upon entering the room they shared.

Erfin was supine on her bed over the covers, clutching her history textbook, fully dressed and eyes closed. Moreover, there was a pile of same-themed books on her bed-table. What a blast! Erfin usually hated history, so what could make her take this many material? Perhaps some horrific test, Lionel thought and shook her awake.

"Huh? Whaa?.. Lionel! I'll tear you to pieces and sell 'em via Internet if you do like this one more time!" Erfin snarled, sleepily blinking, and dropped her textbook.

"Sorry Erf. I thought something might be wrong..."

"Yes, there's something wrong, there's something very wrong," Erfin spluttered, rubbing her black eyes with her fists. "I saw it there and there and there..." she nodded at the textbook pile. "Otherwise I wouldn't have to check..."

"Check what? Some history mistakes? Oh, Erf, those are like movie mistakes. You see them, but you can't change anything."

Erfin grabbed the hugest book from the pile's bottom (and didn't care that the rest of the books fell around) and began turning its pages. Having found the needed one, she pointed at the illustration describing a Northern-styled embroidery:

"Look here, little bro. See?"

"What? A sewed person," Lionel replied in a half-bored tone, having glanced into the book just not to make her enraged - he firmly knew that making Erfin angry wasn't a good idea, though she was all so skinny and pale.

"A sewed person!" Erfin teased. "That's Scandinavia of Eric the Red-Headed or whoever. Now look - Renaissance." She pointed at the painting describing a group of soldiers. "See? The same person here."

"Erf, you're paranoid. Even now one can find doubles of rich and famous... OW!" Lionel hardly avoided being struck by ANCIENT HISTORY book, not the lightest one in the collection.

"I found him in ten history books on more than fifty illustrations of different times! Is that normal?" Erfin snapped.

"So what? You can't do anything about that!"

"I can't, but you can."

"What?!"

"Don't you remember? You had a magic phone number!"

"Crash and splash, Erf, you're surely bonkers," Lionel sighed.

"Shmonkers! I know one thing: I was kidnapped, then brought back, and you were the reason that never exis-ted..." The final word was said slower than the rest because Erfin got confused, having recalled that.

"Those are three things," Lionel pointed out.

"Oh, forget it." Efrin jumped up and began walking from one corner of the room to another, rubbing her sharp chin. "Smith and-and-and... Cream on? Dream on? Rimmond? Seemond? Come on, come on, Erf, you know that... Jamie, Jamie, Doctor, Doctor..."

"Jamie? Doctor?.."

"What, you read my mind?"

"Seems like I had a dream about them once," Lionel confessed. "Or was it not a dream? Dunno. Perhaps it was a very realistic dream..."

"Stop dilly-dallying, Lionel, tell it!"

"As if all people could time-travel, and you were gone, and I called into the past-time agency which investigated strange cases," Lionel went on. "But that doesn't make any sense, Erf."

"If it made any sense, I wouldn't have been here," Erfin replied and crossed her arms. "Find their phone number. NOW! I know you kept it in any version... or where did you find it?.."

"You're surely nuts..."

"Does that matter that I saw that SEWED guy on the street some days ago? There's something very wrong here. Find it, or I will get your shrunken head for my next birthday!"

* * *

"Smith and McCrimmon Investigative Services, Limited," Jamie said into the receiver. "This is McCrimmon speaking."

"I knew that I didn't forget your surname, Jamie!"

Jamie removed the receiver from his ear - the girl's voice from it was a bit too loud. Who would that be? The manner of speaking was horribly familiar, and... But the Doctor made up his mind quicker and took the initiative.

"Hello?"

"Doctor! So that means it's all true! I wouldn't mix you with anybody, old cheater!"

"Finny? Finny Temple?" the Doctor asked, not knowing what to feel - surprise or confusion.

"It's E-R-F-I-N, Doctor! Anyway, are you free now? Right. I have a suspicion that somebody is messing up with history and today too."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I've found the same person on illustrations of several history books, and I've seen him on the streets some time ago," Erfin explained. "Perhaps I'm wrong and it could be you, but..."

"Wait, Finny. Have you spotted the TARDIS anywhere on those illustrations?"

"Never," Erfin replied. "I thought it could be you at first, but there were no blue boxes anywhere. And I have a feeling that something is very wrong here... and he doesn't look like you at all."

"That's a complex question..."

"And he is odd," Erfin continued. "I doubt that any human beings can have white eyes. And appear in various times... Why did I say that?"

* * *

"Oh gods. One half of me is feeling extremely stupid," Erfin grunted after the talk was over.

"And what about the other half?" Lionel wondered.

Erfin shrugged.

"The phone number worked. I wouldn't forget those voices in eternity... Let's make a bet, little brother. If you're right and it doesn't matter, I'll buy you a whole Artemis Fowl series. And if I'm right... you'll buy me a Sherlock DVD double pack!"

"Loo-serrrr," Lionel droned.

And right after the handshake both heard a suspicious sound which was like nothing they had ever heard. Older - younger, one - nil, Erfin thought.


	2. Locked Space

Erfin and Lionel ran out just in time to see an extra landscape detail appear in front of their house.

"What the blazes is going on? There haven't been any... police boxes around here, except for red ones!" Lionel exclaimed.

"Prepare money, Watson," Erfin smirked. And did it even wider when she saw two dark-topped men - one in red kilt, the other in messy clothing and looking like an unmade bed - walk out of the blue police booth right under the branches of a tall chestnut tree. "Come on."

"Do you think I'm going to walk with some madmen?" Lionel snapped.

"Hahahah, lillebror, this is my care," Erfin replied and walked straight towards the duo. "Hello, Old Cheater, hello, Reaper. You didn't make anyone wait, then I believe you've got a time machine. Pure logic."

"You're unbearable, Finny." The little messy man frowned, but his blue eyes were cheerfully glittering. "It's not the Reaper, it could be the Piper."

After this mutual exchange of greetings, Erfin turned to Lionel and pointed at the blue box with her head, then approached right inside it after the two. Lionel, having mentally cursed himself for not resisting, followed them - and found himself in the strangest place possible. He could swear he was in some kind of a flying saucer (shape and interior were perfect for this version), though there was too much space for a police box.

Older - younger, two - nil, Erfin pointed out to herself.

"Lionel, you asked 'em to help find me in alternative history flow," she announced before she could've forgotten the terms. Then she recalled the purpose of today's call and produced a New Age history book from her bag. "Doctor, can you look here? Here it is. Spain, XVI century." She moved her finger along the line of faces on the illustration, searching for the needed one. "And here goes the 2014 photo. I found it by pure accident! Look, the same face and clothing! I've got about ten such coincidences..."

"There are no coincidences," the little man replied.

"Okay, let me know if I'm just wasting your time." Erfin scratched her neck under the collar.

"Well, Finny, let's check your theory." He tapped on the keyboard, and the screen in the farther end of the room began showing various pictures changing rapidly. "I entered the outside settings. Let's see if the TARDIS decides there could be an improbable coincidence."

Lionel marked to himself that his big sister was so worried that she didn't snarl at this weirdo for calling her 'Finny'. Or maybe she liked him.

Soon the tempo of pictures changing slowed down, and one of them froze in the middle of the screen, followed by lines of words and circular symbols which had no similarity to any of those which Erfin or Lionel knew. The little man - the Doctor, was this his name or anything? - put his hands on his hips and squinted at the screen.

"That's a kid named Yon Derrick," he said. "Let's see... Hey, that's weird. There's almost no information about him. Only name and pictures. No birthday, no parents, nothing."

"Yon Derrick? Another alien joke," Erfin murmured. As if responding to this comment, her hands all of a sudden began glowing with golden shine - or no, it was not shine, it was more of two clouds of golden mist surrounding her hands. "Hey, what the heck?! Oh me... Doctor, what is going on? You gotta know that!"

To her dissatisfaction, the Doctor darted to the console and began feverishly tugging at the levers, pressing buttons and twirling handles, having seemingly forgotten about her, thought it wasn't only about mist now: her hands went hotter from the inside, as if filled with hot water, and this feeling was slowly expanding upper to her elbows. Erfin's legs wobbled, and she flopped onto the floor.

"Erf!" Lionel rushed over to her. "Erf, how are you feeling?"

"Get lost!" Erfin yelped. The hot feeling left, but it seemed like everything was drained from her - she had been alert and well some seconds ago, and now she felt as if she had run a marathon race.

The Doctor finished convincing the console (the impression was totally that - he even managed to press something with his foot) and hurried to her.

"I didn't see that coming, Finny..."

"Was your DARTIS attempting to leave without me?" Erfin snapped.

"TARDIS, once again TARDIS, my sweet. Why did you think so?"

"They usually accompany teleportation with light and sparkles and 'woosh!' in movies," Erfin replied, shaking her head to get her fringe out of her eyes.

"That's logical. But it's not logical that you were going to regenerate."

"Whaa?"

"Timelords, my people, are able to regenerate when they are close to death. Our bodies repair themselves, but this brings quite a change."

"Waddaya mean?"

"I mean that I used to be older-looking and had a different face, and now I've got this." The Doctor waved his hand in front of his face.

"You mean you've already had that? Hold it. Quite a change? Do you mean that it could happen to me? And I could..." Erfin's eyes went round like largest Earth coins. "Do you mean, old cheater, that this guy..."

"I don't mean anything, Sherlock!" the Doctor interrupted. Lionel and Jamie stared at each other, not getting what they were talking about. "I said that it's possible to turn into anybody during the process. I mean it. But I didn't mean YOU, Erfin! Regeneration is a painful experience, and despite its meaning quite unhealthy for such a young organism. Besides, in your case it couldn't be completed, because you're only quarter Timelord... or Timelady. Healing wounds and keeping alive when close to death, but no more. You couldn't turn into anybody else."

"That kid has white eyes," Erfin recalled. "Always white. That could mean he's blind. Could that be a consequence of..."

For a moment Lionel had an impression that this 'Doctor' was going to give his sister a big sobering slap. But no.

"That's logical. Children regenerating is a very rare experience, and they usually turn into babies. But there could be such consequences..."

"Doctor, have we landed?" Jamie interfered.

"Why would you think we haven't?"

"There was no shaking," the Scotsman shrugged. "And why were you hanging on the console?"

"Something's blocking the space settings," the Doctor confessed. "Time coordinates stay flexible, but space ones are blocked. We can only go back and forward in time right now."

"Shine!" Erfin snapped. "And what are we going to do now?"

"Let's search for answers, shall we?" The Doctor gestured them to follow him into the depths of the TARDIS.


	3. Limited Space

"That's the hugest library I've ever seen," Erfin confessed when the Doctor opened the huge wooden doors (wooden? Wood on spaceship, new kind of cosmic opera!) and gestured her to enter. The ceiling wasn't seen here, so high the shelves were, and there even were ladders, like in old movies.

"The best weapon in the world, my sweet. Doesn't hurt and reaches effect," the Doctor replied. But Erfin immediately saw a huge gap in the plan.

"Doctor, what if it takes us too much time to identify that guy?"

"It's a time machine, Finny," the Doctor reminded. "Even if we're spaced out - literally - we can still reach what we need till lunchtime."

"That's it, we don't know how much time it'll take," Lionel caught up, reading the labels sticking from between the books. Somewhere there were letters of different alphabets written on them, or hieroglyphs, or pictographs, but somewhere those were more like spy codes. Lionel even doubted if there was such language.

Erfin smelled the air.

"Smells like cleaning mixtures."

"That's because there's a pool nearby," the Doctor explained.

"A pool next to a library? I'm beginning to like ya odd place," Lionel confessed. "Is there a shooting gallery?"

"I think there was, but I don't remember where. Don't like guns, even safe ones." The Doctor flexed his fingers. "Now stand back, they might not like your presence."

"They?" Erfin and Lionel parroted. In her case the word turned into a horrified scream: examining one of the shelves, she saw a bat staring right at her. The Doctor let out a long whistle, and a full flock of bats dashed out of the bookshelves, but didn't attack. Another whistle - and they hid in the shelves again.

"How?.." Erfin only asked. "You can speak to animals as well?"

"I speak ALL languages," the Doctor replied. "But bats, as well as all animals, including human beings, react to the sounds of certain frequencies. You could try it by yourself, Finny."

"Maybe Finny can whistle, but I can't," Erfin retorted.

The Doctor hummed an old song to himself.

"Who we need is a repetitive face. Yon Derrick..."

"Are we gonna search through all of this?" Lionel groaned.

"We're not gonna be bored. And who said it was easy?"

"All your fault, Erf..."

* * *

If there was one thing which bothered Erfin more than anything else, it was coincidences. And not all of them - those which take place before it reveals they are required. She had already looked through not less than two hundred books (and she was not alone in the search - Jamie, Lionel and the Doctor were occupied with this task as well), but none of them contained the required information, even a bit. Though the Doctor had told her 'not to let any of them out', Erfin tossed some of them away without reading - biology-themed books could hardly contain info about a certain person, if he or she wasn't a scientist.

"It all is at letter W. What am I doing here?" she muttered to herself. "Yon Derrick. Perhaps blind. Everywhere in my history books... nowhere here. Maybe books here are too clever to me." She opened a book in unknown language, but with lots of illustrations. Really, Alice from Wonderland was right. What is the sense of a book with no pictures or conversations?.. or whatever she said?..

"It is me who is standing blindfolded on page four hundred and thirty-one in this book, pierced by X-rays," the Doctor's voice sounded behind Erfin when she was ready to toss one more biology book away. "Got it?"

"You are much worse that my bro," Erfin grumbled.

"He is worse than anyone's bro," Jamie's voice was heard from behind the shelf.

"For history's sake, don't you have some kind of a database? I don't believe that time-travellers have none of 'em!"

"Databases can be hacked," the Doctor replied. "And I'm afraid just that was done, so it's the best way, my sweet."

"Hacked? And what if that one who hacked it wants us to stay at the same place - I mean time - for too long?" Lionel supposed.

"I've already thought about that. Right now the TARDIS is in the time vortex. Everywhere and nowhere."

"And what happens if one of us comes out?"

"You'd better not said about it!" the Doctor exclaimed. "There was a story! Remember what happened to Salamander, Jamie?"

"Aye, you'd better not reminded me about that!"

"Salamander? You're a lizard freak too?" Erfin couldn't hold herself from insulting the present ones anymore.

"It's a last name of a person who looked like me but was my complete opposite," the Doctor informed grimly.

"Yowzers-trousers! It's gonna take an eternity to find the time when this Derrick was here!"

"Or it does not." Jamie walked from behind the shelf, carrying a stack of books without beginning or ending. "I've found the mentions of the laddie at this place."

"Wha-what," Erfin stuttered. "You knew that it was about the location THE WHOLE TIME?"

"Another lesson for you, Finny. You do things energetically, but randomly, and you should learn to direct your energy correctly."

"Said the one who does that every fifth time," Jamie hummed to the kids, and they snorted. The Doctor glared at his charge, but the argument was prevented by Lionel:

"Doctor, I've found an odd fact. Look: during Medieval period epidemics of slow-coming blindness infected people in various places of Europe. It says here that sight left the victims so slowly that they didn't realize this fact at first. They thought it was the result of getting dark earlier." The boy showed the picture in the book - a person with weirdly white eyes. "Look, that Yon Derrick has the same eyes. Could that be that he was one of the victims?"

"I think, Lionel, that he could be the reason," the Doctor mentioned. "But now we've got a more narrowed search. Let me check..." He began grabbing books one by one and rapidly turning their pages. "Aha! There we are. There is only one time when the appearance of the white-eyed child and the blindness epidemics breakout match. Which means..."

"Time to take a little stroll," Erfin finished, showing "quotes" with her fingers.


End file.
